Greetings, Aenya fanatics, I’m back with more EXCITING news! And yes, there’s quite a bit of interesting stuff to get through here today regarding all FOUR (count ’em four) of my books, so let’s get right to it, shall we?
Ages of Aenya Published by Hear Our Voices!
As many of you know, I introduced the literary world to Aenya through Xandr and Thelana’s adventures (not counting the earlier version, The Dark Age of Enya). But despite being available since forever, Ages of Aenya is the subject (one of the subjects, anyway) of today’s news! Stacy Brevard-Mays, editor-in-chief at Hear Our Voices, has been gracious enough to represent the first book in the Aenya series, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Her company deals with hundreds of brick-and-mortar bookshops throughout the country but also sells through online retailers like Amazon. But it’s really the physical shelf space that piqued my interest. My books do remarkably well in real places—which I think has something to do with actually holding the pages in your hands and flipping through them to realize that, indeed, this is a REAL book, not some clickbaity, low-content cash-grab, like so many titles you’ll find on Amazon these days. My local warehouse comic shop owes me hundreds of $$$ because Aenya books keep flying off their shelves, and a shopkeeper in Pasco, the next town over from me, paid me IN ADVANCE because she knows my books sell. My only problem is getting around—I can’t visit hundreds of stores in my car—which is where Hear Our Voices comes in.
That being said, the book-buying business isn’t as simple as I imagined. If you’re Stephen King and work with a BIG NAME publisher, you’ll have the funds to print a million copies of your latest novel at a serious discount. If not, you’ve got to go smaller, which is why Stacy Mays, my contact at HoV, suggested we release Ages of Aenya in three parts: City by the Sea, The Serpent’s Eye, and Flesh and Steel.
These new editions will be available at participating bookstores and my author site: www.nickalimonos.com.
The Princess of Aenya: A *NEW* NEW Cover + Shepherd.com
Wait . . . another cover!?! Didn’t you already make a new cover? The answer is yes—yes, I did, and the new one by Becky Barnes is quite beautiful. HOWEVER, cover numero 3 came about by happy accident. As I was perusing artists to market The Feral Girl, I discovered the amazingly talented Noah Bradley (you seriously need to visit this link). One of his pieces reminded me a lot of Thelana, so I asked him if he would be kind enough to license the picture. Unfortunately, the Thelana look-alike was taken, so he asked what other pieces I might be interested in, and looking over his gallery, I discovered this:
The image reminded me oh so much of Tyrnael, with its blazing white Compass Tower set against the surrounding Crown of Aenya Mountains. Noah calls it, The Coming Darkness, and I must admit, it is very reminiscent of the scene in my book wherein the bogren horde march against the capital from the Dark Hemisphere. Happily, the right to this piece was available, so I bought it without even knowing what I would do with it. Then I started playing around in Photoshop, and wouldn’t you know it, The Coming Darkness makes for a jaw-dropping cover!
So for all you hardcore fans out there, here’s one more collectible to add to your shelf!
And if that weren’t enough Princess news, I was recently contacted by Ben Fox, founder of SHEPHERD.COM, a great new resource for authors and book lovers. What’s great about Shepherd (besides not being owned by Jeff) is the way they promote their authors.
Ben wrote to me, saying: I would love to feature “The Feral Girl”, or one of your other books, to readers. And, I was hoping you might be interested in being featured? We are already receiving 92,000+ unique visitors a month. How does it work? You recommend 5 of your favorite books on a topic/theme you are passionate about and 3 to 4 lines on why you recommend each of those books. Then, we promote you and one of your books at the top of that page forever. And we promote your list throughout our website and marketing channels.
Read my article at The best fantasy books to defy the genre and please be sure to subscribe to Shepherd.com!!!
THE FERAL GIRL: GAMER EDITION
Yes, you read that right, I said Gamer Edition.
The Feral Girl is coming soon to your Kindle-enabled e-reader, but I wanted to include something extra special for the digital version, and here it be: the “Gamer Edition” features additional, never-before-seen, full-color artwork, as well as a “Gamer” section for lovers of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop RPGs. You get Thelana’s 5e stats, rules for playing Ilmarin characters, and a complete bestiary starring every major creature to appear in The Feral Girl. The section makes use of Wizards of the Coast’s Open Game License (OGL), so if you want to throw these monsters into your next D&D session, or if you just want to roleplay your own Aenya survival story, you’ll be able to do that!
Preview the new art below:
THE MAGIQ OF AENYA
And . . . finally, we come to what I’ve really been focused on, my FOURTH entry in the series, The Magiq of Aenya. Taking cues from the ever-prolific Stephen King, I have never worked so hard at writing, producing one completed chapter in a week. That’s breakneck-speed, if you stop to think how I spent nine years finishing Ages of Aenya. This book, gods willing, should be done in two.
Part of what’s got me so motivated is my new beta readers. For the first time in my life, I am writing specifically with my daughters (12 and 17) in mind, and they could NOT be more ecstatic. I am also having a blast writing in a style that is just so darn fun to read, experimenting with language, and making great use of onomatopoeia. The Magiq of Aenya is my first YA book and should be superior to Harry Potter and the less-than-original The Lightning Thief.
Seeing the delight on my kids’ faces when I give them a new chapter is better than any drug. Honestly, of all the praise a writer can get, nothing quite tops someone saying, “Can’t you please write faster!?”
The Art of Storytelling 
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